Personal wireless network capabilities-based task portion distribution

ABSTRACT

Where a plurality of personal portable devices communicating with each other through a personal wireless network are to cooperate to perform a task made up of a plurality of task portions, the task portions are automatically distributed among the personal portable devices at least partially in response to comparisons between the capabilities required to perform each task portion and the capabilities of each of the personal portable devices. In making such comparisons, the capabilities of each of the personal portable devices that are actually available for the performance of one or more of the task portions at the time such comparisons are made may be taken into account, and further, such comparisons may be repeated as the capabilities of each of the personal portable devices that are actually available change over time.

FIELD

This description relates to automated distribution of portions of a taskamong multiple personal portable devices in a personal wireless networkbased on the relative abilities and limitations of each personalportable device.

BACKGROUND

It has become commonplace for people carry a multitude of personalportable devices capable of interacting in a personal wireless network(e.g., cell phones, PDAs, PIMs, MP3 players, PNDs, digital cameras,wireless headsets, wireless earpieces, wireless microphones, etc.) thatthey employ in combination to carry out a task where each device isassigned a portion of that task. Such tasks include listening to music,watching a video, engaging in a telephone conversation, reading emails,exchanging text messages, entering data, editing data, printing data,etc. Such personal portable devices are meant to be easily movable fromplace to place by being easily carried on the persons of their users insome way (e.g., in a pocket, strapped to an arm or wrist, worn over thehead, suspended from a neck strap or shoulder strap, clipped to a beltor lapel, etc.).

It has also become commonplace for people to obtain different personalportable devices from different vendors employing different generationsof various technologies and to rely on widely-accepted standards ofwireless communications to enable their different personal portabledevices to interact. As those skilled in the art will readily recognize,technologies in the areas of audio and visual communications are quicklyevolving and accepted standards in the encoding, transmission andencryption of audio/visual data are also quickly evolving. As a result,it is not uncommon for a user to acquire different personal portabledevices capable of overlapping audio/visual functions, but eachimplementing those functions in a manner that adheres to differentgenerations of a standard or each implementing those functions in amanner that adheres to competing standards.

By way of example, depending on the choice of media by which a userreceives a piece of audio/visual data, the audio may be encoded in DolbyDigital, Dolby Surround, MLP, Dolby DTS, Audio MPEG, MP3, WMA, or any ofa variety of other encoding formats. To be so easily carried on a user'sperson, the physical size and weight of such devices is usually kept toa minimum, which necessarily restricts choices of electronic componentswithin such devices to those that are physically smaller in size, thatconsume electrical power at a lesser rate, and that dissipate a lesserproportion of electrical energy as heat. Such restrictions often requirevarious compromises in design choices, such as a physically smallerbattery, a slower processor, a lesser data storage capacity, andinput/output components accommodating a slower maximum rate of datathroughput.

As a result, such personal portable devices are often limited in thecomplexity of the tasks and/or portions of tasks that they are able toperform. Complex tasks often require the execution of larger sequencesof instructions of larger routines at faster rates and/or the storageand processing of larger quantities of data. This often necessitates agreater memory storage capacity, a larger rate of electric powerconsumption, a greater amount of heat dissipation and/or a higher rateof data throughput than can be accommodated by at least some personalportable devices in which one or more of the above compromises in designchoices have been made.

SUMMARY

Where a plurality of personal portable devices communicating with eachother through a personal wireless network are to cooperate to perform atask made up of a plurality of task portions, the task portions areautomatically distributed among the personal portable devices at leastpartially in response to comparisons between the capabilities requiredto perform each task portion and the capabilities of each of thepersonal portable devices. In making such comparisons, the capabilitiesof each of the personal portable devices that are actually available forthe performance of one or more of the task portions at the time suchcomparisons are made may be taken into account, and further, suchcomparisons may be repeated as the capabilities of each of the personalportable devices that are actually available change over time.

In one aspect, a first personal portable device cooperates with at leasta second personal portable device through a wireless network to performa task comprising a plurality of task portions. The first personalportable device comprises a first wireless transceiver to enablecommunications across the wireless network with the second personalportable device, a first processor, and a first storage in which isstored a first assignment routine comprising a sequence of instructions.When the sequence of instructions is executed by the first processor,the first processor is caused to retrieve a first requirements dataindicating a capability required to execute a first task routine toperform a first task portion of the plurality of task portions, a secondrequirements data indicating a capability required to execute a secondtask routine to perform a second task portion of the plurality of taskportions, and a first capabilities data indicating a capability of thefirst personal portable device to execute a routine; operate the firstwireless transceiver to signal the second personal portable devicethrough the wireless network to retrieve a second capabilities dataindicating a capability of the second personal portable device toexecute a routine; derive a first distribution of assignments ofperformances of the first and second task portions among the first andsecond personal portable devices in response to comparing the firstrequirements data to the first and second capabilities data and inresponse to comparing the second requirements data to the first andsecond capabilities data, wherein the first task portion is assigned tobe performed by the first personal portable device such that the firstprocessor is assigned to execute the first routine and the second taskportion is assigned to be performed by the second personal portabledevice such that a second processor of the second personal portabledevice is assigned to execute the second routine; and operate the firstwireless transceiver to signal the second personal portable devicethrough the wireless network with an indication that the second personalportable device is assigned to execute the second task routine.

Implementations may include, and are not limited to, one or more of thefollowing features. The first and/or second capabilities data mayindicate a degree to which a capability of the first and/or secondpersonal portable device remains available for executing a routine as aresult of that capability being at least partially utilized in executinganother task. The first assignment routine may cause the first processorto detect a change in that degree, and to derive a second distributionof assignments of performance of the first and second task portionsamong the first and second personal portable devices in response to thatchange. The first personal portable device may further comprise aninteractive component having a manually-operable control to enable auser to signal for the personal portable devices to cooperate to performthe task. The capability indicated by the first requirements data, thesecond requirements data, the first capabilities data and/or the secondcapabilities data may be an amount of storage, a level of processorthroughput, a level of network throughput or a user interactioncapability. In being caused to derive the first distribution and/or asubsequent distribution, the first processor may either be caused todetermine which of the first and second personal portable devices storesa task data needed to perform the task; or be caused to compare versionlevels of the first task routine and another task routine that alsocorresponds to the first task portion, and to select either the first orthe other task routine at least partially based on which has the laterversion level. The first distribution may require that the first and/orsecond task routines be copied between the first and second personalportable devices, and the deriving the first distribution may requirethe first processor to determine either whether such copying ispermissible in view of a licensing restriction or whether such a copiedroutine would be compatible with one or the other of the first andsecond processors.

In one aspect, a method is for distributing a first task portion and asecond task portion of a task among a first personal portable device anda second personal portable device. The method comprises awaiting anindication from an operator of the first and second personal portabledevices for the first and second personal portable devices to cooperatethrough a wireless network to perform the task; retrieving a firstrequirements data indicating a capability required to perform the firsttask portion, a second requirements data indicating a capabilityrequired to perform the second task portion, a first capabilities dataindicating a capability of the first personal portable device, and asecond capabilities data indicating a capability of the second personalportable device; deriving a first distribution of assignments ofperformances of the first and second task portions among the first andsecond personal portable devices in response to comparing the firstrequirements data to the first and second capabilities data and inresponse to comparing the second requirements data to the first andsecond capabilities data, wherein the first task portion is assigned tobe performed by the first personal portable device and the second taskportion is assigned to be performed by the second personal portabledevice; and transmitting a signal from one of the first and secondpersonal portable devices with an indication of the first distributionof assignments to the other of the first and second personal portabledevices through the wireless network.

Implementations may include, and are not limited to, one or more of thefollowing features. The method may further comprise retrieving at leastone of the first and second requirements data and/or at least one of thefirst and second capabilities data through the wireless network. Thefirst and/or second capabilities data may indicate a degree to which acapability of the first and/or second personal portable device remainsavailable for executing a routine as a result of that capability beingat least partially utilized in executing another task. The method mayfurther comprise detecting a change in that degree, and deriving asecond distribution of assignments of performance of the first andsecond task portions among the first and second personal portabledevices in response to that change. The first personal portable devicemay comprise a first processor that retrieves a first task routine froma storage of the first personal portable device and executes the firsttask routine to perform the first task portion, and/or the secondpersonal portable device may comprise a second processor that retrievesa second task routine from a storage of the second personal portabledevice and executes the second task routine to perform the second taskportion. Awaiting an indication from an operator may comprise awaitingdetection of the operation of a manually-operable control of one or bothof the first and second personal portable devices. The capabilityindicated by the first requirements data, the second requirements data,the first capabilities data and/or the second capabilities data may bean amount of storage, a level of processor throughput, a level ofnetwork throughput or a user interaction capability. Comparing the firstrequirements data to the first and second capabilities data may comprisecomparing requirements to execute the first task routine to capabilitiesof the first and second personal portable devices to execute routines,and comparing the second requirements data to the first and secondcapabilities data may comprise comparing requirements to execute thesecond task routine to capabilities of the first and second personalportable devices to execute routines. Derive the first distributionand/or a subsequent distribution may comprise determining which of thefirst and second personal portable devices stores a task data needed toperform the task; or may comprise comparing version levels of the firsttask routine and another task routine that also corresponds to the firsttask portion, and selecting either the first or the other task routineat least partially based on which has the later version level. The firstdistribution may require that the first and/or second task routines becopied between the first and second personal portable devices, and thederiving the first distribution may require the first processor todetermine either whether such copying is permissible in view of alicensing restriction or whether such a copied routine would becompatible with one or the other of the first and second processors.

Alternatively and/or additionally, implementations may include, and arenot limited to, one or more of the following features. The method mayfurther comprise transmitting a first audio data between the first andsecond personal portable devices, and audibly outputting at least afirst portion of the first audio data. The first and second personalportable devices may cooperate with a third personal portable devicethrough the wireless network to perform the task, the wireless networkmay be of a chain topography with the third personal portable device atan endpoint of that chain topography, and the method may furthercomprise retrieving a third capabilities data indicating a capability ofthe third personal portable device and/or a third requirements dataindicating a capability required to perform a third task portion of thetask. The method may further comprise retransmitting either the firstportion of the first audio to the third personal portable device toenable the third personal portable device to audibly output the firstportion along together with either the first or second personal portabledevices, or a second portion of the first audio to the third personalportable device to enable the third personal portable device to audiblyoutput the second portion substantially simultaneously to either thefirst or second personal portable device audibly outputting the firstportion. The method may further comprise transmitting at least a portionof a second audio detected by a microphone of the second personalportable device to the first personal portable device through thewireless network.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 a is a block diagram depicting a distribution of task portionsamong two personal portable devices in a network.

FIG. 1 b is a block diagram of internal architectures of the twopersonal portable devices of the network of FIG. 1 a depicting acorresponding distribution of assignments of execution of task routinesamong the two personal portable devices.

FIG. 2 a is a block diagram depicting a distribution of task portionsamong two personal portable devices in another network.

FIG. 2 b is a block diagram of internal architectures of the twopersonal portable devices of the network of FIG. 2 a depicting acorresponding distribution of assignments of execution of task routinesamong the two personal portable devices.

FIG. 3 a is a block diagram depicting a distribution of task portionsamong two personal portable devices in still another network.

FIG. 3 b is a block diagram of internal architectures of the twopersonal portable devices of the network of FIG. 3 a depicting acorresponding distribution of assignments of execution of task routinesamong the two personal portable devices.

FIG. 4 a is a block diagram depicting a change in distribution of taskportions among personal portable devices in a network having a chaintopology.

FIG. 4 b is a perspective diagram depicting a more specific example ofthe change in distribution of task portions of FIG. 4 a.

FIG. 4 c is a block diagram depicting a different change in distributionof task portions among the personal portable devices in the network ofFIG. 4 a.

FIG. 4 d is a perspective diagram depicting a more specific example ofthe change in distribution of task portions of FIG. 4 c.

FIGS. 5 a and 5 b are block diagrams that together depict a change indistribution of tasks portions among two personal portable devices in anetwork having a star topology.

DESCRIPTION

FIGS. 1 a and 1 b are block diagrams that, taken together, depict themanner in which a personal portable device 100 and a personal portabledevice 200 wirelessly linked in a network 1000 cooperate to perform atask 900. FIG. 1 a depicts the division of the task 900 into taskportions 901, 905 and 909, and how these task portions are distributedamong the personal portable devices 100 and 200. FIG. 1 b depictsaspects of possible internal architectures of the personal portabledevices 100 and 200, and how the distribution of task portions depictedin FIG. 1 a corresponds to a possible distribution of assignments ofexecution of task routines and use of data among the personal portabledevices 100 and 200.

Each of the personal portable devices 100 and 200 may be any of avariety of types personal portable device, including and not limited to,a personal data assistant (PDA), a personal information manager (PIM), apersonal navigation devices (PND), a cellular telephone, a MP3 audiofile player, a MPEG video file player, a digital camera, a wirelessheadset, a wireless earpiece, and a wireless microphone. The nature ofthe task 900 that the personal portable devices 100 and 200 cooperate toperform necessarily depends on the capabilities of each of the personalportable devices 100 and 200. By way of example, the personal portabledevices 100 and 200 may be a cellular telephone and a wireless in-earheadset, respectively, and the task 900 may be the playing of recordedaudio stored on the personal portable device 100 through the personalportable device 200. By way of another example, the personal portabledevices 100 and 200 may be a wireless data storage device and a wirelessdata terminal, respectively, and the task 900 may be the searching andediting of data stored on the personal portable device 100 by a usercontrolling the search and making the edits through the personalportable device 200. In both cases, the perspective of a user of both ofthe personal portable devices 100 and 200 may be that a single task isbeing performed. However, those skilled in the art will readilyrecognize that what may appear to a user to simply be a single task(e.g., the task 900) often involves multiple subtasks, or portions ofthe task (e.g., the task portions 901, 905 and 909), that must each beperformed for the task to be performed.

The personal portable device 100 incorporates a processor 110, a storage120, a transceiver 130 and an interactive component 140. The processor110 has access to the storage 120 to access various routines and data,has access to the transceiver 130 to engage in wireless communications,and has access to the interactive component 140 to enable interactionbetween the personal portable device 100 and a user. Similarly, thepersonal portable device 200 incorporates a processor 210, a storage220, a transceiver 230 and an interactive component 240. The processor210 has access to the storage 220 to access various routines and data,has access to the transceiver 230 to engage in wireless communications,and has access to the interactive component 240 to enable interactionbetween the personal portable device 200 and a user.

Each of the storages 120 and 220 may be based on any of a wide varietyof information storage technologies, including and not limited to,static RAM, dynamic RAM, ROM of either erasable or non-erasable form,FLASH, magnetic memory, ferromagnetic disk storage, phase-change storageor magneto-optical storage. Each of the storages 120 and 220 are able tostore varying quantities and types of routines and data to be accessedby the processors 110 and 210, respectively. The storage 120 stores atleast task routines 921 and 925 a in addition to storing an assignmentroutine 125, and the storage 220 stores at least task routines 925 b and929 in addition to possibly storing an assignment routine 225. Each ofthe routines 125, 225, 921, 925 a, 925 b and 929 (i.e., both task andassignment routines) may be accompanied by data 155, 255, 951, 955 a,955 b and 959, respectively. It is preferred that the storages 120 and220 be at least partially based on some form of non-volatile storagetechnology to prevent the loss of at least some of their contents whendeprived of power.

Each of the transceivers 130 and 230 may employ any of a number ofwireless communications technologies to enable wireless communicationsbetween the personal portable devices 100 and 200, and thereby enablethe formation of the network 1000. Such technologies by which formationof the network 1000 may be enabled include and are not limited toinfrared, ultrasound, skin conductance, and radio frequency (RF)signals. Where RF signals are employed, the frequencies of those signalsand various aspects of the protocols and the transfers of commands anddata may be selected to conform to any of a variety of wirelessnetworking standards, including and not limited to, the Bluetoothspecification promulgated by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group ofBellevue, Wash., and/or one of the variety of forms of wireless localarea network (WLAN) promulgated by the Institute of Electrical andElectronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE®) of Piscataway, N.J., in at least theIEEE 802 series of standards. Regardless of the exact nature of thetechnology or standards employed in the communications between thepersonal portable devices 100 and 200 via the transceivers 130 and 230,such communications enable coordination between the personal portabledevices 100 and 200 in the performance of their assigned task portionsof the task 900 as the personal portable devices 100 and 200 cooperateto perform the task 900.

Each of the interactive components 140 and 240 may be any of a varietyof types of component enabling a user to interact with the personalportable devices 100 and 200, respectively. Such possible componentinclude, and are not limited to, buttons, switches, touch sensors,capacitance-based proximity sensors, indicator lamps, alphanumericdisplays, video displays, acoustic drivers, microphones, and temperaturesensors. Types of interactions with a user that may be supported by oneor both of the interactive components 140 and 240 include, and are notlimited to, detecting user input through manual operation of controls,detecting user-spoken audio for recordation and/or transmission toanother personal portable device, audibly outputting audio from an audiorecording and/or received from another personal portable device, andcapturing or displaying visual imagery. The type of component for eachof the interactive components 140 and 240 is necessarily linked to whattype of device each of the personal portable devices 100 and 200 are. Byway of example, where the personal portable device 100 is a cellulartelephone, then the interactive component 140 is necessarily at least acombination of manually-operable controls, a visual display, amicrophone and an acoustic driver to enable a user of the personalportable device 100 to dial a phone number, view status informationregarding a phone conversation, and both talk to and hear another personin a phone conversation. By way of another example, where the personalportable device 200 is a wireless earphone, the interactive component240 is necessarily at least an acoustic driver to audibly outputwhatever audio the user of the personal portable device 200 is listeningto, and may further be a manually-operable control to adjust the volumeor other characteristic of that audible output.

Each of the processors 110 and 210 may be any of a variety of types ofprocessing device, including and not limited to, a general purposeprocessor, a digital signal processor or other more specializedprocessor having a limited instruction set optimized for a given rangeof functions, a microcontroller or combinational logic. The processor110 is able to access in the storage 120 each of the assignment routine125 and the task routines 921 and 925 a to retrieve sequences ofinstructions that when executed by the processor 110, cause theprocessor 110 to perform various tasks, as will be described. Similarly,the processor 210 is able to access in the storage 220 each of theassignment routine 225 and the task routines 925 b and 929 to alsoretrieve sequences of instructions that when executed by the processor210, cause the processor 210 to perform various tasks, as will besimilarly described.

As previously discussed, the task 900 is divided into the task portions901, 905 and 909, and these task portions are distributed among thepersonal portable devices 100 and 200, which employ the network 1000 ofwhich they are each a part to coordinate their separate performances ofthe ones of these task portions that are assigned to each of them. Inthis way, the personal portable devices 100 and 200 cooperate to performthe task 900 as directed by the user of the personal portable devices100 and 200. As depicted in FIG. 1 a, the task portions 901 and 905 areassigned to the personal portable device 100, and the task portion 909is assigned to the personal portable device 200. It should be noted thatthe task portion 901 corresponds to the task routine 921, the taskportion 905 corresponds to either of the task routines 925 a or 925 b,and the task portion 909 corresponds to the task routine 929. Therefore,the distribution of task portions depicted in FIG. 1 a results in thecorresponding distribution of assignments of execution of routinesdepicted in FIG. 1 a in which the processor 110 is assigned to executethe task routines 921 and 925 a, and of the processor 210 is assigned toexecute the task routine 929, while the task routine 925 b is notexecuted.

The distribution of task portions depicted in FIG. 1 a and thecorresponding distribution of assignments of execution of routinesdepicted in FIG. 1 b are derived based on the relative capabilities ofthe personal portable devices 100 and 200 to perform each of the taskportions 901, 905 and 909. In determining such relative abilities,various factors are evaluated, including and not limited to, the storagecapacities and processing throughputs required to execute each taskroutine, the storage capacities of the storages 120 and 220, theprocessing throughputs of the processors 110 and 210, the network datatransfer rates required to execute each task routine, the data transfercapacities of the transceivers 130 and 230, the user interactionsrequired to execute each task routine, the user interaction capabilitiesof the interactive components 140 and 240, which of the storages 120 and220 contains required routines and/or data, whether or not requiredroutines and/or data are able to be copied between the storages 120 and220, and relative capabilities and/or version levels of differentroutines where there is more than one routine is available to choosefrom to perform a particular task portion. In some embodiments, thederivation of a distribution of the task portions of the task 900 amongthe personal portable devices 100 and 200 may be caused to be performedby only one or the other of the processors 110 and 210 as a result ofexecuting a sequence of instructions of one or the other of theassignment routines 125 and 225, respectively. In other embodiments, theprocessors 110 and 210 are caused by the execution of the assignmentroutines 125 and 225, respectively, to cooperate in deriving adistribution of task portions.

As part of deriving a distribution of the task portions of the task 900,information concerning what task portions make up the task 900 must beretrieved, along with what task routines corresponding to each of thosetask portions are stored within each of the storages 110 and 210 of thepersonal portable devices 100 and 200, respectively. In essence, when auser of the personal portable devices 100 and 200 commands the personalportable devices 100 and 200 to cooperate to perform the task 900,information must be retrieved that indicates what task portions must beperformed in order to perform the task 900. Upon retrieving informationindicating that the task portions 901, 905 and 909 are the task portionsthat make up the task 900, requirements data providing informationconcerning the various requirements of each of the task routinescorresponding to each of the portions 901, 905 and 909 must beretrieved. In some embodiments, one or both of the data 155 and 255associated with the assignment routines 125 and 225, respectively, mayinclude requirements data providing such information. In otherembodiments, one or more of the data 951, 955 a, 955 b and 959associated with the task routines 921, 925 a, 925 b and 929,respectively, may provide such information. In still other embodiments,requirements data providing such information about each of the taskroutines 921, 925 a, 925 b and 929 may be directly incorporated intoeach of these task routines. Also, capabilities data providinginformation concerning the various capabilities of each of the personalportable devices 100 and 200 must be retrieved, and in some embodiments,one or both of the data 155 and 255 may include such information.Further, information must be retrieved concerning what capabilities ofeach of the personal portable devices are already committed to supportthe execution of other routines unrelated to the task 900 such thatthose capabilities may be partially or entirely unavailable to one ormore task routines related to the task 900. In some embodiments, thecapabilities data may provide this information concerning whatcapabilities are actually available at a given time in view of whatcapabilities have been committed elsewhere in lieu of providinginformation concerning capabilities that would be available if none werecommitted elsewhere.

In some embodiments, at least some of such information may take the formof Boolean values that each indicate whether or not a given task routinerequires that a given personal portable device have a particularcapability and/or Boolean values that each indicate whether or not agiven personal portable device has that given capability (or whether ornot that given capability is available at that time). By way of example,such information concerning a given task routine may indicate whether ornot the given task routine requires a keypad that enables a user toenter text, and corresponding information concerning a given personalportable device may indicate whether or not the given personal portabledevice has such a keypad and/or whether or not such a keypad isavailable at that time. Additionally and/or alternatively, suchinformation may take the form of rating values that each indicate alevel of a particular capability required by a given task routine and/ora level of that particular capability provided by or available from agiven personal portable device. By way of example, such informationconcerning a given task routine may indicate a particular minimum levelof processing throughput to be executed, and corresponding informationconcerning a given personal portable device may indicate a particularmaximum possible level of processing throughput for executing a routineof whatever type and/or a maximum available level. As those skilled inthe art will readily recognize, ratings of such things as a processor'sthroughput or of the minimum throughput required to execute a routinemay necessarily be approximations, since any of a wide variety ofconditions in place at any given time during the execution of a givenroutine by a given processor may result in greater or lesser processingthroughput being available from that processor for the execution of thatroutine.

Upon retrieving at least some of the aforementioned information, thederivation of a distribution of the task portions 901, 905 and 909entails determining what distributions of these task portions arepossible in view of that information. In some embodiments, this entailscomparing each of the requirements data indicating capabilities requiredby each of the task routines to each of the capabilities data indicatingwhat capabilities are potentially and/or actually available from each ofthe personal portable devices 100 and 200. By way of example, where agiven task routine requires a keypad that enables a user to enter textand where a given personal portable device provides such a keypad, thenthe task portion corresponding to that task routine may be assigned tobe performed by that personal portable device. In other embodiments,this entails comparing rating values indicating a level of a capabilityrequired by a given task routine to rating values indicating a level ofthat capability provided by each personal portable device. By way ofexample, where a given task routine requires a particular minimum levelof processing throughput and where a given personal portable device isable to provide that level of processing throughput, then the taskportion corresponding to that task routine may be assigned to beperformed by that personal portable device.

However, as those skilled in the art will readily recognize, otherfactors may limit what distributions of task portions are possible,despite whatever capabilities may be provided by each of the personalportable devices 100 and 200. Further information may need to beretrieved and employed in determining what distributions of taskportions are possible, including information concerning where each taskroutine corresponding to each task portion is stored, whether or noteach task routine is able to be copied and/or transferred between thepersonal portable devices 100 and 200, and which of the processors 110and 210 is each task routine compatible with. By way of example, whethera task routine corresponding to a given task portion is stored in one orother of the storages 120 or 220 may be determinative of which of thepersonal portable devices is assigned to perform that task portion ifthat task cannot be copied and/or transferred between the storages 120and 220 either due to limits in storage capacity or due to limitsimposed by a licensing agreement associated with that task routine.Similarly, whether a task routine corresponding to a given task portionis incompatible with one or the other of the processors 110 and 210 suchthat one of the processors 110 and 210 is unable to execute a sequenceof instructions of that task routine. In some embodiments, informationconcerning processor compatibility and/or limitations on copying ortransfer may either be included within one or more of the data 155, 255,951, 955 a, 955 b and 959, or be embedded within one or more of the taskroutines 921, 925 a, 925 b and 929.

Along with determining what distributions of the task portions 901, 905and 909 are possible, the derivation of a distribution may entaildetermining which distribution is preferred from what may be multipledistributions that are determined to be possible. Where multipledistributions of the task portions 901, 905 and 909 are determined to bepossible, one distribution may be determined to be preferred overanother based on one or more factors, including and not limited to, thecomparative number of features enabled, relative version levels ofdifferent task routines, and efficiency in usage of capabilitiesprovided by the personal portable devices 100 and 200. By way ofexample, one distribution that results in a given task portion beingassigned to one personal portable device that is able to perform thattask portion while providing a user with a greater degree of controlover that performance may be determined to be preferred over anotherdistribution that results in that task portion being assigned to anotherpersonal portable device that is not able to provide the user with asmuch of a degree of control. This may be because one personal portabledevice is able to provide a user interface that affords the user theopportunity to control more of the settings employed in performing thattask portion. By way of another example, one distribution that resultsin a given task portion being assigned to one personal portable devicethat has a task routine stored within it that is a more recent versionthan an analogous task routine stored within another personal portabledevice may be preferred over another distribution that results in thattask portion being assigned to that other personal portable device. Asthose skilled in the art will readily recognize, new versions ofroutines to perform a given function are usually created to addressshortcomings of earlier versions, and so the use of a more recentversions is often desirable, where possible. By way of still anotherexample, one distribution that results in a given task portion beingassigned to one personal portable device that is able to perform thetask portion more efficiently may be preferred over another distributionthat results in that task portion being assigned to another personalportable device that is not able to perform that task portion asefficiently. As those skilled in the art will readily recognize,internal architectures of some electronic devices may incorporatespecialized processing components that are able to perform a givenfunction while using less storage capacity, data throughput and/or otherresources than other electronic devices having internal architecturesnot incorporating such specialized processing components.

As has already been discussed, the distribution of the task portions901, 905 and 909 depicted in FIG. 1 a, results in the processor 110being assigned to execute sequences of instructions of the task routines921 and 925 a, and the processor 210 being assigned to execute asequence of instructions of the task routine 929, as depicted in FIG. 1b. As also depicted in FIG. 1 b, sequences of instructions of the taskroutine 925 b are not executed. As has been discussed, and as indicatedin FIG. 1 a with a dashed arrow, at least one alternative distributionwas possible in which the task portion 905 might have been assigned toperformed by the personal portable device 200, instead of by thepersonal portable device 100. The exact manner in which the distributiondepicted in FIG. 1 a (versus such alternatives) was derived may varygreatly depending on a wide variety of possible circumstances, includingthe nature of the task 900 and the capabilities of the personal portabledevices 100 and 200.

By way of example, it may be that this depicted distribution of taskportions (and accompanying distribution of assignments to execute taskroutines) was determined to be the only distribution possible. It may bethat the processor 210 did not have sufficient processing throughputavailable to execute both of the task routines 925 b and 929, while theprocessor 110 did have sufficient available processing throughput toexecute the task routines 921 and 925 a. Or, it may be that the storage220 does not have sufficient available capacity to accommodate possiblesize of the data 955 b associated with the task routine 925 b that mightbe expected to occur during execution of the task routine 925 b. Since,either of the task routines 925 a and 925 b could have been selected tocause the performance of the task portion 905, the depicted distributionmay have been derived as a result of it being possible to execute thetask routine 925 a, but not the task routine 925 b. Alternatively and byway of another example, it may be that this depicted distribution oftask portions was determined to be preferably despite one or more otherdistributions (including one or more distributions resulting in the taskroutine 925 b being executed) being possible. Execution of the taskroutine 925 a may be preferable over execution of the task routine 925 bas a result of the task routine 925 a being a newer version, or the taskroutine 925 a providing a greater degree of user control, or the taskroutine 925 a employing a specialized feature of the internalarchitecture of the personal portable device 200 that would have enabledmore efficient performance of the task portion 905.

FIGS. 2 a and 2 b are block diagrams that, taken together, depict themanner in which a personal portable device 100 and a personal portabledevice 200 wirelessly linked in a network 2000 cooperate to perform atask 900 of audibly outputting audio stored as an audio data 950 withinthe personal portable device 100 through the personal portable device200. The personal portable devices 100 and 200 also cooperate to assignportions of the task 900 at least partly in response to relativecapabilities of the personal portable devices 100 and 200. FIG. 2 adepicts the division of the task 900 into various task portions, and howthese task portions are distributed among the personal portable devices100 and 200. FIG. 2 b depicts aspects of possible internal architecturesof the personal portable devices 100 and 200, and how possibledistributions of assignments of task portions correspond to possibledistributions of assignments of execution of task routines among thepersonal portable devices 100 and 200.

Each of the personal portable devices 100 and 200 may be any of avariety of possible forms of personal portable device. However, theFIGS. 2 a and 2 b and the discussion that follows are meant to provide amore specific example of assigning portions of a more specific taskbetween more specific forms of the personal portable devices 100 and 200than were discussed in more general terms with regard to the personalportable devices 100 and 200 of FIGS. 1 a and 1 b. Therefore, asdepicted, the personal portable device 100 is a hand-holdable deviceappropriate for storing audio data (e.g., a MP3 file player, a MPEGvideo file player, a digital camera, etc.), and the personal portabledevice 200 is a device in the form of an earpiece that is appropriatefor audibly outputting audio provided by the personal portable device100 (e.g., a wireless “ear bud”) to a user's ear. Due to numerouscorrespondences of features between FIGS. 1 a and 1 b, and FIGS. 2 a and2 b, numerous identical numeric labels have been used.

Not unlike the personal portable device 100 of FIGS. 1 a and 1 b, thepersonal portable device 100 of FIGS. 2 a and 2 b incorporates a storage120, a transceiver 130 and an interactive component 140, one or more ofwhich are accessible by a processor 110 also incorporated into thepersonal portable device 100. Similarly, not unlike the personalportable device 200 of FIGS. 1 a and 1 b, the personal portable device200 of FIGS. 2 a and 2 b incorporates a storage 220, a transceiver 230and an interactive component 240, one or more of which are accessible bya processor 210 also incorporated into the personal portable device 200.Again, each of the processors 110 and 210, the storages 120 and 220, thetransceivers 130 and 230, and the interactive components 140 and 240 maybe based on any of a variety of technologies. However, in embodiments inwhich the personal portable device 100 is of a form appropriate forstoring audio data (e.g., the audio data 950), and in which the personalportable device 200 is of a form appropriate for audibly outputtingaudio, the interactive component 140 likely incorporates at least onemanually-operable control and possibly a visual display to enableselection of audio data, and the interactive component 240 likelyincorporates at least one acoustic driver to enable audible output.

In a manner not unlike the task 900 of FIGS. 1 a and 1 b, the task 900of FIGS. 2 a and 2 b of audibly outputting the audio data 950 stored inthe storage 120 of the personal portable device 100 through an acousticdriver of the interactive component 240 of the personal portable device200 is divided up into multiple task portions, including a userinterface task portion 901, a communications task portion 902, adecompression task portion 904, an adjusting task portion 905, acommunications task portion 908 and a user interface task portion 909.The user interface tasks portions 901 and 909 entail receiving userinput from the user's operation of manually-operable controls of theinteractive components 140 and/or 240, and providing the user withvisibly and/or audibly perceptible indications of the operation of thepersonal portable devices 100 and 200 in their cooperation to performthe task 900. The communications task portions 902 and 908 entail theexchange of commands and/or data between the personal portable devices100 and 200 through the network 2000. The decompression task portion 904entails the decompression of compressed audio stored as the audio data950. The decompression task portion 904 may further entail selectingand/or decoding one or more audio channels in response to informationconcerning various characteristics of the one or more acoustic driversof the interactive component 240. The adjusting task portion 905 entailsadjusting one or more characteristics of the decompressed form of theaudio data 950, including and not limited to, bass, treble, balance, andvolume. The adjusting task portion 905 may further entail adjusting suchcharacteristics in response to user input received in the course ofperforming one or the other of the user interface task portions 901 and909.

In a manner not unlike the task portions and task routines assigned tothe personal portable devices 100 and 200 in FIGS. 1 a and 1 b, amongthe personal portable devices 100 and 200 of FIGS. 2 a and 2 b, thereare also correspondences between the task portions and task routines.More specifically, the user interface task portion 901 corresponds to auser interface routine 921, the communications task portion 902corresponds to a communications routine 922, the decompression taskportion 904 corresponds to either of decompression routines 924 a and924 b, the adjusting task portion 905 corresponds to either of adjustingroutines 925 a and 925 b, the communications task portion 908corresponds to a communications routine 928, and the user interface taskportion 909 correspond to a user interface routine 929. With the taskroutines 924 a and 925 a stored on the personal portable device 100, andwith the task routines 924 b and 925 b stored on the personal portabledevice 200, it may be that the task portions are each potentiallyassignable to either of these personal portable devices. However, asdepicted in FIG. 2 a, the task portion 904 is assigned to be performedby the personal portable device 100 along with the task portions 901 and902, and the task portion 905 is assigned to be performed by thepersonal portable device 200 along with the task portions 908 and 909.This corresponds to the processor 110 being assigned to executesequences of instructions of the task routines 921, 922 and 924 a, andthe processor 210 being assigned to execute sequences of instructions ofthe task routines 925 b, 928 and 929, while the task routines 924 b and925 a are not executed, as depicted in FIG. 2 b.

The distribution of task portions depicted in FIG. 2 a and thecorresponding distribution of assignments of execution of task routinesdepicted in FIG. 2 b, like those discussed with regard to the moregeneral example embodiment of FIGS. 1 a and 1 b, are derived based onthe relative capabilities of the personal portable devices 100 and 200to perform the various task portions assigned to them. Again, indetermining such relative capabilities, various factors are evaluated,including and not limited to, the storage capacities and processingthroughputs required to execute each task routine, the storagecapacities of the storages 120 and 220, the processing throughputs ofthe processors 110 and 210, the network data transfer rates required toexecute each task routine, the data transfer capacities of thetransceivers 130 and 230, the user interactions required to execute eachtask routine, the user interaction capabilities of the interactivecomponents 140 and 240, which of the storages 120 and 220 containsrequired routines and/or data, whether or not required routines and/ordata are able to be moved to between the storages 120 and 220, andrelative capabilities and/or version levels of different routines wherethere is more than one routine available to perform a particular taskportion. Again, this derivation of a distribution of the task portionsof the task 900 among the personal portable devices 100 and 200 may beperformed by only one or the other of the processors 110 and 210, or byboth of the processors 110 and 210 acting in cooperation as a result ofexecuting instructions of one or the other or both of the assignmentroutines 125 and 225, respectively. As will now be explained, one orboth of the processors 110 and 210 are caused by one or both of theassignment routines 125 and 225 to retrieve various pieces ofinformation related to performing the task 900, are caused to performcomparisons between requirements data indicating required capabilitiesand capabilities data indicating either all possibly availablecapabilities or capabilities available at a given time to derivepossible distributions, and may be caused to derive a preferreddistribution where there is more than one possible distribution.

As part of deriving the distribution of the task portions of the task900 depicted in FIG. 2 a, information concerning what task portions makeup the task 900 must be retrieved by one or both of the processors 110and 210, along with what corresponding task routines are stored withineach of the storages 110 and 210 of the personal portable devices 100and 200, respectively. In the case of what is depicted in FIG. 2 b, suchretrieved information indicates that the personal portable device 100has stored within the storage 120 the user interface routine 921enabling user interaction with the personal portable device 100 toselect the audio data 950 to be audibly output, the communicationsroutine 922 enabling communications by the personal portable device 100through the network 2000, the decompression routine 924 a to decompressthe audio data 950, and the adjusting routine 925 a to adjust one ormore characteristics of the audio data 950. Such retrieved informationalso indicates that the personal portable device 200 has stored withinthe storage 220 the user interface routine 929 enabling user interactionwith the personal portable device 200 to employ at least one acousticdriver of the interactive component 240 to audibly output the audio data950, the communications routine 928 enabling communications by thepersonal portable device 200 through the network 2000, the decompressionroutine 924 b, and the adjusting routine 925 b.

As those skilled in the art will readily recognize, the user interfaceroutines 921 and 929 are likely to be tailored to particular uniquecapabilities of the interactive components 140 and 240, respectively,and there are unlikely to be analogous routines stored within either ofthe other of these personal portable devices. Therefore, it is likelythat the task routines 921 and 929 are meant to be executed only by theprocessors 110 and 210. Given the somewhat specialized forms of userinteraction entailed in performing each of the task portions 901 and909, especially given that the task portion 909 entails the actualperformance of audible output, the unique capabilities of theinteractive components 140 and 240 make it likely that the task portions901 and 909 can be assigned only to the personal portable devices 100and 200, respectively. Similarly, as those skilled in the art willreadily recognize, the communications routines 922 and 928 are likelytailored to particular unique capabilities of the transceivers 130 and230 of the personal portable devices 100 and 200, respectively, andtherefore, are likely meant to be executed only by the processors 110and 210. It is further likely that performance of the correspondingcommunications task portions 902 and 908 can be assigned only to thepersonal portable devices 100 and 200, respectively. In other words, asthose skilled in the art will recognize, it is likely that somespecialization among various personal portable devices will effectivelyrequire that at least some of the task portions of a task, such as thetask portions 901, 902, 908 and 909 of the task 900, be assigned to beperformed by only certain ones of the personal portable devices.

In contrast, other task portions, such as the task portions 904 and 905,may not be so closely tailored to the more specialized capabilities ofany particular personal portable device. With the task routines 924 aand 925 a stored within the personal portable device 100 being largelyanalogous to the task routines 924 b and 925 b, respectively, storedwithin the personal portable device 200, the task portions 904 and 905are each more easily assignable to either of these personal portabledevices. In other words, it is not necessarily unlikely that both apersonal portable device meant to store audio data and a personalportable device meant to audibly output wirelessly-received audio mayeach possess task routines enabling each personal portable device toperform overlapping task portions, such as the decompression taskportion 904 or the adjusting task portion 905. Therefore, and morespecifically, it is not necessarily unlikely that both the personalportable devices 100 and 200 may possess task routines for decompressingand adjusting characteristics of the audio data 950.

Upon retrieving information indicating what task portions make up thetask 900, one or both of the processors 110 and 210 must retrieveinformation concerning the various requirements for the performance ofeach of the task portions 901, 902, 904, 905, 908 and 909. Moreprecisely, requirements data providing information concerning therequirements of the task routines 921, 922, 924 a, 924 b, 925 a, 925 b,928 and 929 must be retrieved, including and not limited to theprocessing throughput and storage requirements of each of these taskroutines. Also, capabilities data must be retrieved providinginformation concerning the various capabilities of each of the personalportable devices 100 and 200 and/or information concerning whatcapabilities of each of the personal portable devices are not alreadycommitted to other routines unrelated to the task 900 such that thosecapabilities are partially or entirely unavailable. By way of example,such retrieved information indicates what capabilities are incorporatedinto the interactive component 140 to enable user selection of the audiodata 950 for being audibly output (e.g., presence/absence ofmanually-operable controls, pixel resolution of a visual display tovisually depict a name or title associated with the audio data 950,etc.), what capabilities are incorporated into the interactive component240 to enable audible output (e.g., quantity of acoustic drivers, outputfrequency limitations, etc.). Also by way of example, such informationmay indicate maximum and/or available processing throughput of theprocessors 110 and 210, maximum and/or available data throughput of thetransceivers 130 and 230, or maximum and/or available storage capacitiesof the storages 120 and 220.

The retrieval of at least some of the aforementioned informationconcerning requirements of each of these task routines and the availablecapabilities of each of the personal portable devices 100 and 200enables a comparison by one or both of the processors 110 and 210between those requirements and those available capabilities to determinewhat distributions of the task portions of the task 900 among thepersonal portable devices 100 and 200 are possible. By way of example(and as already discussed to some degree) such retrieved information mayindicate that the interactive component 140 has the capabilitiesrequired to enable performance of the task portion 901, while theinteractive component 240 does not, and therefore, the personal portabledevice 100 is assigned to perform the task portion 901 by way of theprocessor 110 being assigned to execute the task routine 921 to therebycause the processor 110 to operate the interactive component 140 toperform the task portion 901, as depicted. Also by way of example,despite the storage within each of the personal portable devices 100 and200 of analogous task routines 924 a and 924 b, respectively, it may bethat the processing throughput that would be required of the processor210 to execute the task routine 924 b to perform the task portion 904simply isn't available, while the processing throughput that would berequired of the processor 110 to execute the task routine 924 a toperform the task portion 904 is available, and as a result, the personalportable device 100 is assigned to perform the task portion 904, asdepicted.

Where a comparison between the requirements of the task routinescorresponding to the task portions of the task 900 and the capabilitiesof the personal portable devices 100 and 200 yields more than onepossible distribution of assignments of execution of task routines, thederivation of the depicted distribution may then additionally entailselecting a preferred distribution from among those possibledistributions in accordance with one or more goals. A goal influencingwhich distribution is preferred may be that of seeking to use the mostrecent versions of each task routine to perform each task portion, wherepossible. By way of example, where one possible distribution of taskportions entails having the task portion 905 performed by the processor110 executing the task routine 925 a, and another possible distributionentails having the task portion 905 performed by the processor 210executing the task routine 925 b, the derivation of a distribution oftask portions may be determined by which of the task routines 925 a and925 b is a more recent version. Alternatively and/or additionally, agoal influencing which distribution is preferred may be that of seekingto use whichever task routine out of multiple task routinescorresponding to a single task portion provides the most features. Byway of example, where one possible distribution entails having theprocessor 110 execute the decompression routine 924 a to perform thedecompression task portion 904, and the another possible distributionentails having the processor 210 execute the decompression routine 924 bto do so, the derivation of a distribution of task portions may bedetermined by which of the task routines 924 a and 924 b providesadditional features not provided by the other (e.g., audio noisereduction, frequency re-equalization, etc.). Further, one goal may beprioritized over another goal such that, for example, one task routineis selected over another due to providing a feature that the other doesnot, despite the other being a more recent version.

Alternatively and/or additionally, the derivation of a distribution maybe further influenced by additional limitations beyond task routines andavailable capabilities, including and not limited to, locality of datarequired to perform a task, such as the audio data 950. More precisely,a limit on possible distributions of assignments of execution of taskroutines may be imposed by the audio data 950 being stored in thestorage 120. In some embodiments, it may be that licensing limitationsregarding the audio data 950 restrict the manner in which the audio data950 may be communicated between the personal portable devices 100 and200. By way of example, it may be that the audio data 950 may be copiedonly in its compressed form (especially if the compressed formincorporates encryption, digital watermarking, and/or other forms ofcopy protection) from the storage 120 to the storage 220, and can onlybe decompressed within the personal portable device 200 as it is audiblyoutput. This may well dictate that only the task routines 924 b and 925b may be used in performing the task portions 904 and 905 (i.e.,decompressing and adjusting the audio data 950), thereby effectivelynecessitating the assignment of the task portions 904 and 905 to thepersonal portable device 200 regardless of any advantage that might beafforded through the use of either of the task routines 924 a and 925 a.Alternatively and also by way of example, it may be that no lasting orcomplete copy of the audio data 950 is permitted to reside within thepersonal portable device 200, thereby possibly precluding thedecompression of the audio data 950 by the personal portable device 200,and thereby resulting in the task portion 904 necessarily being assignedto be performed by the personal portable device 100 such that at leastthe task routine 924 a is required to be used regardless of anyadvantage that might be afforded by using the task routine 924 b.

FIGS. 3 a and 3 b are block diagrams that, taken together, depict themanner in which a personal portable device 100 and a personal portabledevice 200 wirelessly linked in a network 3000 cooperate to perform atask 900 of editing a data 950 stored within the personal portabledevice 100 through the personal portable device 200. FIG. 3 a depictsthe division of the task 900 into various task portions, and how thesetask portions are distributed among the personal portable devices 100and 200. FIG. 3 b depicts aspects of possible internal architectures ofthe personal portable devices 100 and 200, and how the distribution ofassignments of task portions corresponds to a possible distribution ofassignments of execution of routines among the personal portable devices100 and 200.

Each of the personal portable devices 100 and 200 may be any of avariety of types personal portable device. However, like FIGS. 2 a and 2b, FIGS. 3 a and 3 b and the discussion that follows, are meant toprovide a more specific example of distributing portions of a morespecific task between more specific forms of the personal portabledevices 100 and 200 than was discussed in more general terms with regardto the personal portable devices 100 and 200 of FIGS. 1 a and 1 b.Therefore, as depicted, the personal portable device 100 is ahand-holdable device appropriate for storing data (e.g., a PDA, a PIM, aPND, or a cellular telephone), and the personal portable device 200 is awrist-worn device appropriate for editing data stored in the personalportable device 100. Due to numerous correspondences of features betweenFIGS. 1 a and 1 b, and FIGS. 3 a and 3 b, numerous identical numericlabels have been used.

Not unlike the personal portable device 100 of FIGS. 1 a and 1 b, thepersonal portable device 100 of FIGS. 3 a and 3 b incorporates a storage120, a transceiver 130 and an interactive component 140, one or more ofwhich are accessible by a processor 110 also incorporated into thepersonal portable device 100. Similarly, not unlike the personalportable device 200 of FIGS. 1 a and 1 b, the personal portable device200 of FIGS. 3 a and 3 b incorporates a storage 220, a transceiver 230and an interactive component 240, one or more of which are accessible bya processor 210 also incorporated into the personal portable device 200.Again, each of the processors 110 and 210, the storages 120 and 220, thetransceivers 130 and 230, and the interactive components 140 and 240 maybe based on any of a variety of technologies. However, in embodiments inwhich the personal portable device 100 is of a form appropriate forstoring data, and in which the personal portable device 200 is of a formappropriate for enabling a user to edit data, the interactive component240 is likely to incorporate a visual displays capable of displayingtext and a manually-operable keyboard capable of being used to inputtext, as depicted in FIG. 3 a, while the interactive component 140 islikely to do so.

In a manner not unlike the task 900 of FIGS. 1 a and 1 b, in FIGS. 3 aand 3 b, the task 900 of editing data stored on the personal portabledevice 100 through the personal portable device 200 is divided up into auser interface task portion 901, a communications task portion 902, asearch task portion 904 enabling the content of the data 950 to besearched, an edit task portion 905 enabling the content of the data 950to be edited, a communications task portion 908 and a user interfacetask portion 909. Not unlike the task portions and routines assigned tothe personal portable devices 100 and 200 in FIGS. 1 a and 1 b, amongthe personal portable devices 100 and 200 of FIGS. 3 a and 3 b, the userinterface task portion 901, the communications task portion 902, thesearch task portion 904, the editing task portion 905, thecommunications task portion 908 and the user interface task portion 909correspond to various task routines, specifically, a user interfaceroutine 921, a communications routine 922, search routines 924 a and 924b, editing routines 925 a and 925 b, a communications routine 928 and auser interface routine 929, respectively.

As depicted in FIG. 3 a, the distribution of task portions of the task900 is such that the task portions 901 and 902 are assigned to performedby the personal portable device 100, while the task portions 904, 905,908 and 909 are assigned to be performed by the personal portable device200. This corresponds to a distribution of assignments of execution oftask routines depicted in FIG. 3 b in which the task routines 921 and922 are assigned to be executed by the processor 110 of the personalportable device 100, while the task routines 924, 925, 928 and 929 areassigned to be executed by the processor 210 of the personal portabledevice 200.

This distribution of task portions and corresponding distribution ofassignments of execution of task routines, like those discussed withregard to the more general example embodiments of FIGS. 1 a and 1 b, arederived based on the relative capabilities of the personal portabledevices 100 and 200 to perform the various task portions assigned tothem based on a variety of factors, as previously detailed. Again, thederivation of a distribution of the task portions and correspondingdistribution of assignments of execution of task routines may beperformed by only one or the other of the processors 110 and 210, orcooperatively by both of the processors 110 and 210 as a result ofexecuting instructions of one or the other or both of the assignmentroutines 125 and 225, respectively.

As previously discussed with regard to the task routines 901, 902, 908and 909 of the task 900 of FIGS. 2 a and 2 b, particular ones of thetask routines 901, 902, 908 and 909 of the task 900 of FIGS. 3 a and 3 bmay be greatly tailored to unique capabilities of one or the other ofthe personal portable devices 100 and 200 of FIGS. 3 a and 3 b. As aresult, the task portions 901 and 902 are at least more likely to beassigned to be performed by the personal portable device 100 and thetask portions 908 and 909 are at least more likely to be assigned to beperformed by the personal portable device 200, as depicted in FIG. 3 a.Correspondingly, the task routines 921 and 922 are more likely to beassigned to be executed by the processor 110, and the task routines 928and 929 are more likely to be assigned to be executed by the processor110, as depicted in FIG. 3 b.

The task portions 904 and 905 of FIGS. 3 a and 3 b may be more easilyassignable to either of the personal portable devices 100 and 200 in amanner similar to task portions 904 and 905 of FIGS. 2 a and 2 b.However, unlike the task portions 904 and 905 of FIGS. 2 a and 2 b, thetask portions 904 and 905 of FIGS. 3 a and 3 b do not have correspondinganalogous task routines stored within both of the personal portabledevices 100 and 200. Instead, and as depicted in FIG. 3 b, the taskroutines 924 and 925 that correspond to the task portions 904 and 905,respectively, are stored solely within the storage 220 of the personalportable device 200 where they may be accessed for execution by theprocessor 210. Due to the lack of analogous task routines stored withinthe personal portable device 100, any assignment of either of the taskportions 904 and 905 to the personal portable device 100 the might occurmay entail the copying of one or both of the task routines 924 and 925to the storage 120 of the personal portable device 100 to enable accessand execution by the processor 110.

While such copying of the task routines 924 and 925 between the personalportable devices 100 and 200 may be possible, thereby possibly enablingthe assignment of one or both of the task portions 904 and 905 to thepersonal portable device 100, it may be that the processor 110 is notcapable of executing either of the task routines 924 and 925 as a resultof incompatibility between the processor 110 and the task routines 924and 925. In such a situation, the depicted distribution of the taskportions 904 and 905 to the personal portable device 200 may be the onlydistribution possible. Alternatively and/or additionally, it may be thata licensing agreement or other similar restriction dictates that suchcopying of one or the other of the task routines 924 and 925 between thepersonal portable devices 100 and 200 is not permitted. As a result, itmay be that the task portions 904 and/or 905 are not assignable to thepersonal portable device 100, and must necessarily be assigned to beperformed by the personal portable device 200, instead.

Where such copying of the task routines 924 and 925 between the personalportable devices 100 and 200 to enable the assignment of one or both ofthe task portions 904 and 905 to the personal portable device 100 is notprevented by licensing restrictions or technological limitations (e.g.,incompatibility), such copying of task routines may, in someembodiments, be necessary where it is somehow impermissible to copy thedata 950 between the personal portable devices 100 and 200. In otherwords, a licensing restriction regarding the data 950 may limit orentirely forbid copying of the data 950 to the personal portable device200 where the task routines 924 and 925 may be employed to edit and/orperform searches of the data 950 within the personal portable device200. Where it is possible for one or both of the routines 924 and 925 tobe executed by the processor 210 in a manner in which the data 950 isaccessed through the network 3000, then one or both of the task portions904 and 905 may be assigned to the personal portable device 200. Whereit is possible for one or both of the routines 924 and 925 to be copiedto the personal portable device 100, then one or both of the taskportions 904 and 905 may be assigned to the personal portable device 100where the data 950 may be accessed more directly.

FIGS. 4 a, 4 b, 4 c and 4 d are block diagrams that each depict threepersonal portable devices 100, 200 and 300 in a chain topology network4000 cooperating to perform various incarnations of a task 900, butdepicting different forms of reassignment of a portion of the task 900among these three personal portable devices in response to changingavailability of the relative capabilities of the personal portabledevices 100, 200 and 300. FIG. 4 a depicts a reassignment of a taskportion unrelated to network communications from the personal portabledevice 200 to the personal portable device 300. FIG. 4 b depicts a morespecific example of the form of reassignment of a task portion depictedin FIG. 4 a. FIG. 4 c depicts a reassignment of a task portion relatedto network communications from the personal portable device 200 to thepersonal portable device 300 that results in a change in relativepositions of these three personal portable devices in the chain topologyof the network 4000. FIG. 4 d depicts a more specific example of theform of reassignment of a task portion depicted in FIG. 4 c.

Not unlike the personal portable devices 100 and 200 of the network 1000in FIGS. 1 a and 1 b, the personal portable devices 100, 200 and 300 ofthe network 4000 may each be any of a variety of types personal portabledevice. In a manner not unlike the task 900 depicted in FIGS. 1 a and 1b, the task 900 depicted in FIGS. 4 a and 4 b is divided up into seventask portions 902 through 908, and those task portions are distributedamong these three personal portable devices. The task portions 902 and903 are initially assigned to be performed by the personal portabledevice 100; the task portions 904, 905 and 906 are initially assigned tobe performed by the personal portable device 200; and the task portions907 and 908 are initially assigned to be performed by the personalportable device 300. Not unlike what has been discussed with regard topreviously detailed examples, this initial distribution of task portionsassigned to the personal portable devices 100, 200 and 300 is derivedbased on the various capabilities of each of these personal portabledevices to perform the various task versus the various capabilitiesrequired by each task portion.

Beyond depicting an initial distribution of task portions among thepersonal portable devices 100, 200 and 300, FIGS. 4 a and 4 b alsodepict a dynamic reassignment of at least one of those task portionsarising from a change in availability of one or more capabilities of oneor more of the personal portable devices 100, 200 and 300. Such a changein capability may be an instance of a capability of one of thesepersonal portable devices becoming available after being unavailable orbecoming available to a greater degree after being available only to amore limited degree at an earlier time when an earlier distribution wasderived. Alternatively, such a change in capability may be an instanceof a capability of one of these personal portable devices becomingunavailable after being available or becoming less available after beingavailable to a greater degree. In other words, FIGS. 4 a and 4 billustrate that a distribution of task portions need not remain staticupon being derived, but can be dynamic such that earlier distributionsmay be changed through subsequent derivations of new distributions inresponse to changes in capabilities provided by each of the personalportable devices 100, 200 and 300.

More specifically, FIG. 4 a depicts the reassignment of the task portion905 from being assigned to be performed by the personal portable device200 to being assigned to be performed by the personal portable device300. As those skilled in the art will readily recognize, changes incapabilities provided by one or more of the personal portable devices100, 200 and 300 prompting the derivation of a new distribution thatresults in this reassignment may arise from a variety of possiblecircumstances. By way of example, it may be that a processor of thepersonal portable device 200 is subsequently required to executeinstructions of a routine associated with a task unrelated to the task900 such that the amount of processing throughput required to enable thepersonal portable device 200 to perform the task portion 905 ceases tobe available. By way of another example, interference with the exchangeof wireless signals through the wireless network 4000 may diminish thedata throughput available between two or more of the personal portabledevices 100, 200 and 300 such that data throughput required to enablethe personal portable device 200 to perform the task portion 905 ceasesto be available. In other words, this reassignment may be prompted by aneed to reassign the performance of the task portion 905 in order toensure that the task portion 905 continues to be performed. By way ofstill another example, it may be that a processor of the personalportable device 300 is subsequently able to provide a greater degree ofprocessing throughput than before, and this enables that processor toperform the task portion 905 by executing a corresponding task routinestored within the personal portable device 300 that enables the personalportable device 300 to perform the task portion 905 in some way that ispreferred in comparison to the personal portable device 200 continuingto perform the task portion 905. In other words, an opportunity toimprove the manner in which the task portion 905 is performed may comeabout, and this reassignment is made to take advantage of thatopportunity.

Turning to FIG. 4 b, the form of reassignment depicted in FIG. 4 a isapplied to the more specific situation depicted in FIG. 4 b such thatFIG. 4 a represents a possible architecture employed by the personalportable devices 100, 200 and 300 of FIG. 4 b. In FIG. 4 b, the personalportable devices 100, 200 and 300 cooperate to perform an incarnation ofthe task 900 introduced in FIG. 4 a, and in FIG. 4 b, the task 900 isthat of supporting two-way audio communications in which monaural audiotransmitted across the network 4000 by the personal portable device 100is audibly output to a user through at least one acoustic driver of eachof the personal portable devices 200 and 300, and where monaural audiospoken by the user is detected through a microphone of the personalportable device 200 and transmitted back to the personal portable device100. As depicted, the personal portable device 300 is in the form of awireless earpiece meant to be at least partially inserted into one earof the user, the personal portable device 200 is in the form of awireless headset meant to be at least partially inserted into the user'sother ear, and the personal portable device 100 is in the form of an RFdevice such as a cellular telephone or walkie-talkie.

As those skilled in the art will already recognize, it has becomeincreasingly commonplace for personal portable devices used in audiocommunications to employ wireless technology conforming to the Bluetoothspecification. However, the Bluetooth specification currently has noprovision for distributing the transmission of outgoing audio that ispart of two-way audio communication such that outgoing audio could betransmitted by one device to multiple other devices. Further, theBluetooth specification also has no provision for also receivingincoming audio from one of multiple devices to which outgoing audio isbeing transmitted as part of two-way audio communication. Instead,Bluetooth is currently limited to supporting a bi-directional exchangeof audio in two-way audio communications between only two devices.Therefore, there is currently no provision in Bluetooth for enabling thepersonal portable device 100 to simultaneously transmit outgoing audioto both of the personal portable devices 200 and 300 for audible outputto both ears of the user while simultaneously receiving incoming audiospoken by the user from the personal portable device 200. To overcomethis, the personal portable device 200 falsely presents itself to thepersonal portable device 100 as being a simple single device having botha microphone and an acoustic driver to support two-way audiocommunications, without revealing its role in retransmitting audio toanother device. This has the effect of inducing the personal portabledevice 100 to transmit outgoing audio to the personal portable device200 and receive incoming audio from the personal portable device 200.The personal portable device 200, in turn, retransmits at least theoutgoing audio received from the personal portable device 100 to thepersonal portable device 300 to be audibly output to the user.

Momentarily referring back to FIG. 4 a, among the task portions 902through 908 of the task 900 are both task portions related tocommunications within the network 4000 and task portions that are notrelated to such communications. The task portions 903 and 904 arerelated to network communications between the personal portable devices100 and 200, and the task portions 906 and 907 are related to networkcommunications between the personal portable devices 200 and 300 toimplement the chained retransmission of audio data that is hidden fromthe personal portable device 100. In contrast, the task portions 902,905 and 908 are task portions unrelated to network communications. Thenon-network task portion 905 may be an audio processing task portion,including and not limited to, controlling an audio characteristic (e.g.,volume, left-to-right audio channel balance, bass, treble, etc.), noisecancellation and/or audio processing to avoid occurrences of audiblefeedback developing between an acoustic driver of the personal portabledevice 300 and the microphone of the personal portable device 200. Asthose skilled in the art will readily recognize, it is not unlikely thatmore than one personal portable device having capabilities making itamenable to being employed with other personal portable devices toperform an audio-related task, such as the task 900, may well haveoverlapping audio processing task portions, such as the task portion905. Therefore, where a change in capabilities available from one or theother of the personal portable devices 200 and 300 occurs, it may bethat this changes prompts a derivation of a new distribution in whichthe task portion 905 is reassigned to be performed by the personalportable device 300, and such a change may be a diminution of thecapabilities available from the personal portable device 200, or anincrease in the capabilities available from the personal portable device300.

As an alternative to the reassignment of a task portion not related tonetwork communications, such as the task portion 905 of FIGS. 4 a and 4b, in FIG. 4 c, the network-related task portion 904 of anotherincarnation of the task 900 introduced in FIG. 4 a is reassigned frombeing performed by the personal portable device 200 to being performedby the personal portable device 300. This reassignment is in response toa change in availability of one or more capabilities of one or more ofthe personal portable devices 100, 200 and 300. In this reassignment,one of the task portions involved in network communications between thepersonal portable devices 100 and 200 switches from being performed bythe personal portable device 200 to being performed by the personalportable device 300, thereby altering the topology of the network 4000.Prior to this reassignment, the chain topology of the network 4000 withthe personal portable device 200 interposed between the other twopersonal portable devices 100 and 300 resulted in the personal portabledevice 200 serving to retransmit communications between the personalportable devices 100 and 300. Following this reassignment, the network4000 continues to have a chain topology, but the relative positions ofthese three personal portable devices are altered such that the personalportable device 300 is now interposed between the other two personalportable devices 100 and 200, and the personal portable device 300 nowserves to retransmit communications between the personal portabledevices 100 and 200.

Turning to FIG. 4 d, the form of reassignment occurring in FIG. 4 c isapplied to the more specific situation depicted in FIG. 4 d such thatFIG. 4 c represents a possible architecture employed by the personalportable devices 100, 200 and 300 of FIG. 4 d. In FIG. 4 d, the personalportable devices 100, 200 and 300 cooperate to perform an incarnation ofthe task 900 introduced in FIG. 4 a. In FIG. 4 b, the task 900 is thatof audibly outputting audio data stored in the personal portable device300 in a form having at least 2 audio channels with each of the personalportable devices 100 and 200 audibly outputting a different one of theat least 2 audio channels. The personal portable devices 200 and 300each incorporate at least one acoustic driver to each audibly output atleast one audio channel of the audio data as the audio data istransmitted across the network 4000 by the personal portable device 100.As depicted, each of the personal portable devices 200 and 300 is in theform of a wireless earpiece meant to be at least partially inserted intoseparate ears of a user.

As was the case with the use of Bluetooth with regard to what wasdepicted in FIG. 4 b, FIG. 4 d depicts another use of retransmission ofaudio data in a chain network topography to overcome a limitation ofBluetooth, albeit, a different limitation of Bluetooth in this case.More specifically, the Bluetooth specification currently has noprovision for the simultaneous separate transmission of differing audiochannels of a single piece of audio data to separate devices. Instead,Bluetooth is limited to supporting only the transmission of all channelsof a single piece of data audio in a single transmission from one deviceto only one other device. Therefore, there is no provision in Bluetoothfor enabling the personal portable device 100 to separately transmitleft and right audio channels (for example) to each of the personalportable devices 200 and 300 for being separately audibly output intoeach ear of the user. To overcome this, the personal portable device 200falsely presents itself to the personal portable device 100 as being asingle device capable of audibly outputting both of the left and rightaudio channels. This has the effect of inducing the personal portabledevice 100 to transmit both the left and right audio channels of thepiece of audio data to the personal portable device 200. The personalportable device 200 then retransmits at least one, if not both of theleft and right audio channels to the personal portable device 300, witheach of the personal portable devices 200 and 300 audibly outputting aseparate one of the left and right audio channels.

Again, as those skilled in the art will readily recognize, changes incapabilities provided by one or more of the personal portable devices100, 200 and 300 that prompt the derivation of a new distributionresulting in this reassignment may arise from a variety ofcircumstances. By way of example, it may be that a wireless transceiverof the personal portable device 200 is subsequently required to transfera large quantity of data for a task unrelated to the task 900 such thatthe amount of data throughput required to enable the personal portabledevice 200 to perform the task portion 904 ceases to be available. Byway of another example, it may be that a processor of the personalportable device 300 is subsequently able to provide a greater degree ofprocessing throughput than before, and this enables that processor toperform the task portion 904 by executing a corresponding task routinestored within the personal portable device 300 that enables the personalportable device 300 to perform the task portion 904 in some way that ispreferred in comparison to the personal portable device 200 continuingto perform the task portion 904.

FIGS. 5 a and 5 b are block diagrams depicting six personal portabledevices 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 and 600 in a star topology network 5000cooperating to perform a task 900. Not unlike the personal portabledevices 100 and 200 of the network 1000 in FIGS. 1 a and 1 b, each ofthe personal portable devices 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 and 600 of thenetwork 5000 may be any of a variety of types personal portable device.In a manner not unlike the task 900 depicted in FIGS. 1 a and 1 b, thetask 900 of FIGS. 5 a and 5 b is divided up into six task portions 901,902, 903, 904, 905 and 906 that are initially assigned to be performedby the personal portable devices 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 and 600,respectively.

All of the task portions 901 through 906 are task portions related tocommunications within the network 5000. More specifically, the taskportion 901 is related to network communication between the personalportable device 100 and the other five personal portable devices 200through 600, which corresponds to the personal portable device 100 beingat the center of the network 5000. Further, the task portion 902 isrelated to network communications between the personal portable devices100 and 200, which corresponds to the personal portable device 200 beingat one of the endpoints of the star topology of the network 5000. Asthose skilled in the art will readily recognize, the task portion 901differs significantly from the task portions 902 through 906 insofar asthe task portion 901 entails communications with five other deviceswhile each of the task portions 902 through 906 entails communicationswith only one other device.

FIG. 5 a depicts the initial distribution of these task portions amongthese six personal portable devices. FIG. 5 b depicts the reassignmentof two of these task portions between the personal portable devices 100and 200 as part of a change to the initial distribution of these taskportions in response to changing availability of capabilities of one ormore of these personal portable devices resulting in a change in therelative positions of these six personal portable devices in the startopology of the network 5000. More specifically, the task portions 901and 902 are both reassigned such that they are “swapped” between thepersonal portable devices 100 and 200. As a result of this pair ofreassignments, the initial center and endpoint positions of the personalportable devices 100 and 200 are exchanged, while the star topology ofthe network 5000 is maintained.

Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.

1. A first personal portable device to cooperate with at least a secondpersonal portable device through a wireless network to perform a taskcomprising a plurality of task portions, the first personal portabledevice comprising: a first wireless transceiver to enable communicationsacross the wireless network with the second personal portable device; afirst processor; a first storage in which is stored a first assignmentroutine comprising a sequence of instructions, that when executed by thefirst processor, causes the first processor to: retrieve a firstrequirements data indicating a capability required to execute a firsttask routine to perform a first task portion of the plurality of taskportions, a second requirements data indicating a capability required toexecute a second task routine to perform a second task portion of theplurality of task portions, and a first capabilities data indicating acapability of the first personal portable device to execute a routine;operate the first wireless transceiver to signal the second personalportable device through the wireless network to retrieve a secondcapabilities data indicating a capability of the second personalportable device to execute a routine; derive a first distribution ofassignments of performances of the first and second task portions amongthe first and second personal portable devices in response to comparingthe first requirements data to the first and second capabilities dataand in response to comparing the second requirements data to the firstand second capabilities data, wherein the first task portion is assignedto be performed by the first personal portable device such that thefirst processor is assigned to execute the first routine and the secondtask portion is assigned to be performed by the second personal portabledevice such that a second processor of the second personal portabledevice is assigned to execute the second routine; and operate the firstwireless transceiver to signal the second personal portable devicethrough the wireless network with an indication that the second personalportable device is assigned to execute the second task routine; andwherein the first processor being caused to derive the firstdistribution comprises the first processing being caused to: compare aversion level of the first task routine to a version level of anothertask routine corresponding to the first task portion and stored in asecond storage of the second personal portable device; and select thefirst task routine at least partially due to the version level of thefirst task routine being a later version than the version level of theother task routine.
 2. The first personal portable device of claim 1,wherein the first capabilities data indicates a degree to which thecapability of the first personal portable device remains available forexecuting a routine as a result of the capability of the first personalportable device being at least partly utilized in the execution of aroutine of another task.
 3. The first personal portable device of claim2, wherein executing the first assignment routine further causes thefirst processor to: detect a change in the degree to which thecapability of the first personal portable device remains available; andderive a second distribution of assignments of performance of the firstand second task portions among the first and second personal portabledevices in response to the change in the degree to which the capabilityof the first personal portable device remains available.
 4. The firstpersonal portable device of claim 1, further comprising a firstinteractive component having a manually-operable control to enable auser of at least the first and second personal portable devices toenable a user to signal for at least the first and second personalportable devices to cooperate to perform the task.
 5. The first personalportable device of claim 1, wherein: the capability indicated by thefirst requirements data is selected from the group consisting of anindication of an amount of storage, an indication of a level ofprocessor throughput, an indication of a level of network throughput,and an indication of a user interaction capability; and the capabilityindicated by the second requirements data is selected from the groupconsisting of an indication of an amount of storage, an indication of alevel of processor throughput, an indication of a level of networkthroughput, and an indication of a user interaction capability.
 6. Thefirst personal portable device of claim 1, wherein: the capabilityavailable indicated by the first capabilities data is selected from thegroup consisting of an indication of an amount of storage within thefirst personal portable device, an indication of a level of processorthroughput of the first processor, an indication of a level of networkthroughput of the first personal portable device on the wirelessnetwork, and an indication of a user interaction capability of the firstpersonal portable device; and the capability available indicated by thesecond capabilities data is selected from the group consisting of anindication of an amount of storage within the second personal portabledevice, an indication of a level of processor throughput of the secondprocessor, an indication of a level of network throughput of the secondpersonal portable device on the wireless network, and an indication of auser interaction capability of the second personal portable device. 7.The first personal portable device of claim 1, wherein the firstprocessor being caused to derive the first distribution comprises thefirst processing being caused to determine which one of the first andsecond personal portable devices stores a task data required to performthe task.
 8. The first personal portable device of claim 1, wherein thefirst distribution requires that at least one of the first and secondtask routines be copied between the first storage of the first personalportable device and a second storage of the second personal portabledevice, and wherein the first processor being caused to derive the firstdistribution comprises the first processor being caused to determinewhether at least one of the first and second task routines is compatiblewith at least one of the first and second processors.
 9. A method ofdistributing a first task portion and a second task portion of a taskamong a first personal portable device and a second personal portabledevice, the method comprising: awaiting an indication from an operatorof the first and second personal portable devices for the first andsecond personal portable devices to cooperate through a wireless networkto perform the task; retrieving a first requirements data indicating acapability required to perform the first task portion, a secondrequirements data indicating a capability required to perform the secondtask portion, a first capabilities data indicating a capability of thefirst personal portable device, and a second capabilities dataindicating a capability of the second personal portable device; derivinga first distribution of assignments of performances of the first andsecond task portions among the first and second personal portabledevices in response to comparing the first requirements data to thefirst and second capabilities data and in response to comparing thesecond requirements data to the first and second capabilities data,wherein the first task portion is assigned to be performed by the firstpersonal portable device and the second task portion is assigned to beperformed by the second personal portable device; transmitting a signalfrom one of the first and second personal portable devices with anindication of the first distribution of assignments to the other of thefirst and second personal portable devices through the wireless network;and wherein: the first personal portable device performing the firsttask portion comprises a first processor of the first personal portabledevice retrieving a first task routine corresponding to the first taskportion from a storage accessible to the first processor and executingthe first task routine; the second personal portable device performingthe second task portion comprises a second processor of the secondpersonal portable device retrieving a second task routine correspondingto the second task portion from a storage accessible to the secondprocessor and executing the second task routine; and deriving the firstdistribution comprises: comparing a version level of the first taskroutine to a version level of another task routine corresponding to thefirst task portion and stored in the second personal portable device;and selecting the first task routine at least partially due to theversion level of the first task routine being a later version than theversion level of the other task routine.
 10. The method of claim 9,further comprising retrieving at least one of the first and secondrequirements data and at least one of the first and second capabilitiesdata from at least one of the first and second personal portable devicesthrough the wireless network.
 11. The method of claim 9, wherein thefirst capabilities data indicates a degree to which the capability ofthe first personal portable device remains available for performing thetask as a result of the capability of the first personal portable devicebeing at least partly utilized in performing another task.
 12. Themethod of claim 11, further comprising: detecting a change in the degreeto which the capability of the first personal portable device remainsavailable for performing the task; and deriving a second distribution ofassignments of performance of the first and second task portions amongthe first and second personal portable devices in response to the changein the degree to which the capability of the first personal portabledevice remains available.
 13. The method of claim 9, wherein awaiting anindication from an operator comprises awaiting detection of theoperation of a manually-operable control of at least one of the firstand second personal portable devices.
 14. The method of claim 9,wherein: the first requirements data indicates a capability required toexecute the first task routine, the indication being selected from thegroup consisting of an indication of an amount of storage, an indicationof a level of processor throughput, an indication of a level of networkthroughput, and an indication of a user interaction capability; and thesecond requirements data indicates a capability required to execute thesecond task routine, the indication being selected from the groupconsisting of an indication of an amount of storage, an indication of alevel of processor throughput, an indication of a level of networkthroughput, and an indication of a user interaction capability.
 15. Themethod of claim 9, wherein: the first capabilities data indicates acapability available from the first personal portable device, theindication being selected from the group consisting of an indication ofan amount of storage within the first personal portable device, anindication of a level of processor throughput of the first processor, anindication of a level of network throughput of the first personalportable device on the wireless network, and an indication of a userinteraction capability of the first personal portable device; and thesecond capabilities data indicates a capability available from thesecond personal portable device, the indication being selected from thegroup consisting of an indication of an amount of storage within thesecond personal portable device, an indication of a level of processorthroughput of the second processor, an indication of a level of networkthroughput of the second personal portable device on the wirelessnetwork, and an indication of a user interaction capability of thesecond personal portable device.
 16. The method of claim 9, whereincomparing the first requirements data to the first and secondcapabilities data comprises comparing requirements to execute the firsttask routine to capabilities of the first and second personal portabledevices to execute routines, and wherein comparing the secondrequirements data to the first and second capabilities data comprisescomparing requirements to execute the second task routine tocapabilities of the first and second personal portable devices toexecute routines.
 17. The method of claim 9, wherein deriving the firstdistribution comprises determining which one of the first and secondpersonal portable devices stores a task data required to perform thetask.
 18. The method of claim 9, wherein the first distribution requiresthat at least one of the first and second task routines be copiedbetween the first and second personal portable devices, and whereinderiving the first distribution comprises determining whether at leastone of the first and second task routines is compatible with at leastone of the first and second processors.
 19. The method of claim 9,further comprising: transmitting a first audio data between the firstand second personal portable devices in performing the first taskportion; and audibly outputting at least a first portion of the firstaudio data in performing the second task portion.
 20. The method ofclaim 19, wherein: the first and second personal portable devicescooperate with a third personal portable device through the wirelessnetwork to perform the task; the wireless network is of a chaintopography wherein the third personal portable devices occupies anendpoint of the chain topography; and the method further comprises:retransmitting at least a second portion of the first audio to the thirdpersonal portable device through the wireless network in performing athird task portion of the task to enable the third personal portabledevice to audibly output the at least a second portion of the firstaudio; and retrieving a third requirements data indicating a capabilityrequired to perform the third task portion, and a third capabilitiesdata indicating a capability of the third personal portable device. 21.The method of claim 19, wherein: the first and second personal portabledevices cooperate with a third personal portable device through thewireless network to perform the task; the wireless network is of a chaintopography wherein the third personal portable devices occupies anendpoint of the chain topography; and the method further comprises:retransmitting the at least a first portion of the first audio to thethird personal portable device through the wireless network inperforming a third task portion of the task to enable the third personalportable device to audibly output the at least a first portion of thefirst audio; transmitting at least a portion of a second audio detectedby a microphone of the second personal portable device to the firstpersonal portable device through the wireless network in performing afourth task portion of the task; retrieving a third requirements dataindicating a capability required to perform the third task portion, afourth requirements data indicating a capability required to perform thefourth task portion, and a third capabilities data indicating acapability of the third personal portable device.
 22. A first personalportable device to cooperate with at least a second personal portabledevice through a wireless network to perform a task comprising aplurality of task portions, the first personal portable devicecomprising: a first wireless transceiver to enable communications acrossthe wireless network with the second personal portable device; a firstprocessor; a first storage in which is stored a first assignment routinecomprising a sequence of instructions, that when executed by the firstprocessor, causes the first processor to: retrieve a first requirementsdata indicating a capability required to execute a first task routine toperform a first task portion of the plurality of task portions, a secondrequirements data indicating a capability required to execute a secondtask routine to perform a second task portion of the plurality of taskportions, and a first capabilities data indicating a capability of thefirst personal portable device to execute a routine; operate the firstwireless transceiver to signal the second personal portable devicethrough the wireless network to retrieve a second capabilities dataindicating a capability of the second personal portable device toexecute a routine; derive a first distribution of assignments ofperformances of the first and second task portions among the first andsecond personal portable devices in response to comparing the firstrequirements data to the first and second capabilities data and inresponse to comparing the second requirements data to the first andsecond capabilities data, wherein the first task portion is assigned tobe performed by the first personal portable device such that the firstprocessor is assigned to execute the first routine and the second taskportion is assigned to be performed by the second personal portabledevice such that a second processor of the second personal portabledevice is assigned to execute the second routine; and operate the firstwireless transceiver to signal the second personal portable devicethrough the wireless network with an indication that the second personalportable device is assigned to execute the second task routine; andwherein the first distribution requires that at least one of the firstand second task routines transferred between the first storage of thefirst personal portable device and a second storage of the secondpersonal portable device, and wherein the first processor being causedto derive the first distribution comprises the first processor beingcaused to determine whether transferring at least one of the first andsecond task routines between the first and second storages ispermissible.
 23. The first personal portable device of claim 22, whereinthe first capabilities data indicates a degree to which the capabilityof the first personal portable device remains available for executing aroutine as a result of the capability of the first personal portabledevice being at least partly utilized in the execution of a routine ofanother task.
 24. The first personal portable device of claim 23,wherein executing the first assignment routine further causes the firstprocessor to: detect a change in the degree to which the capability ofthe first personal portable device remains available; and derive asecond distribution of assignments of performance of the first andsecond task portions among the first and second personal portabledevices in response to the change in the degree to which the capabilityof the first personal portable device remains available.
 25. The firstpersonal portable device of claim 22, further comprising a firstinteractive component having a manually-operable control to enable auser of at least the first and second personal portable devices toenable a user to signal for at least the first and second personalportable devices to cooperate to perform the task.
 26. The firstpersonal portable device of claim 22, wherein: the capability indicatedby the first requirements data is selected from the group consisting ofan indication of an amount of storage, an indication of a level ofprocessor throughput, an indication of a level of network throughput,and an indication of a user interaction capability; and the capabilityindicated by the second requirements data is selected from the groupconsisting of an indication of an amount of storage, an indication of alevel of processor throughput, an indication of a level of networkthroughput, and an indication of a user interaction capability.
 27. Thefirst personal portable device of claim 22, wherein: the capabilityavailable indicated by the first capabilities data is selected from thegroup consisting of an indication of an amount of storage within thefirst personal portable device, an indication of a level of processorthroughput of the first processor, an indication of a level of networkthroughput of the first personal portable device on the wirelessnetwork, and an indication of a user interaction capability of the firstpersonal portable device; and the capability available indicated by thesecond capabilities data is selected from the group consisting of anindication of an amount of storage within the second personal portabledevice, an indication of a level of processor throughput of the secondprocessor, an indication of a level of network throughput of the secondpersonal portable device on the wireless network, and an indication of auser interaction capability of the second personal portable device. 28.The first personal portable device of claim 22, wherein the firstprocessor being caused to derive the first distribution comprises thefirst processing being caused to determine which one of the first andsecond personal portable devices stores a task data required to performthe task.
 29. The first personal portable device of claim 22, whereinthe first distribution requires that at least one of the first andsecond task routines be copied between the first storage of the firstpersonal portable device and a second storage of the second personalportable device, and wherein the first processor being caused to derivethe first distribution comprises the first processor being caused todetermine whether at least one of the first and second task routines iscompatible with at least one of the first and second processors.
 30. Amethod of distributing a first task portion and a second task portion ofa task among a first personal portable device and a second personalportable device, the method comprising: awaiting an indication from anoperator of the first and second personal portable devices for the firstand second personal portable devices to cooperate through a wirelessnetwork to perform the task; retrieving a first requirements dataindicating a capability required to perform the first task portion, asecond requirements data indicating a capability required to perform thesecond task portion, a first capabilities data indicating a capabilityof the first personal portable device, and a second capabilities dataindicating a capability of the second personal portable device; derivinga first distribution of assignments of performances of the first andsecond task portions among the first and second personal portabledevices in response to comparing the first requirements data to thefirst and second capabilities data and in response to comparing thesecond requirements data to the first and second capabilities data,wherein the first task portion is assigned to be performed by the firstpersonal portable device and the second task portion is assigned to beperformed by the second personal portable device; transmitting a signalfrom one of the first and second personal portable devices with anindication of the first distribution of assignments to the other of thefirst and second personal portable devices through the wireless network;and wherein: the first personal portable device performing the firsttask portion comprises a first processor of the first personal portabledevice retrieving a first task routine corresponding to the first taskportion from a storage accessible to the first processor and executingthe first task routine; the second personal portable device performingthe second task portion comprises a second processor of the secondpersonal portable device retrieving a second task routine correspondingto the second task portion from a storage accessible to the secondprocessor and executing the second task routine; and the firstdistribution requires that at least one of the first and second taskroutines be transferred between the first and second personal portabledevices, and wherein deriving the first distribution comprisesdetermining whether transferring at least one of the first and secondtask routines between the first and second personal portable devices ispermissible.
 31. The method of claim 30, further comprising retrievingat least one of the first and second requirements data and at least oneof the first and second capabilities data from at least one of the firstand second personal portable devices through the wireless network. 32.The method of claim 30, wherein the first capabilities data indicates adegree to which the capability of the first personal portable deviceremains available for performing the task as a result of the capabilityof the first personal portable device being at least partly utilized inperforming another task.
 33. The method of claim 32, further comprising:detecting a change in the degree to which the capability of the firstpersonal portable device remains available for performing the task; andderiving a second distribution of assignments of performance of thefirst and second task portions among the first and second personalportable devices in response to the change in the degree to which thecapability of the first personal portable device remains available. 34.The method of claim 30, wherein awaiting an indication from an operatorcomprises awaiting detection of the operation of a manually-operablecontrol of at least one of the first and second personal portabledevices.
 35. The method of claim 30, wherein: the first requirementsdata indicates a capability required to execute the first task routine,the indication being selected from the group consisting of an indicationof an amount of storage, an indication of a level of processorthroughput, an indication of a level of network throughput, and anindication of a user interaction capability; and the second requirementsdata indicates a capability required to execute the second task routine,the indication being selected from the group consisting of an indicationof an amount of storage, an indication of a level of processorthroughput, an indication of a level of network throughput, and anindication of a user interaction capability.
 36. The method of claim 30,wherein: the first capabilities data indicates a capability availablefrom the first personal portable device, the indication being selectedfrom the group consisting of an indication of an amount of storagewithin the first personal portable device, an indication of a level ofprocessor throughput of the first processor, an indication of a level ofnetwork throughput of the first personal portable device on the wirelessnetwork, and an indication of a user interaction capability of the firstpersonal portable device; and the second capabilities data indicates acapability available from the second personal portable device, theindication being selected from the group consisting of an indication ofan amount of storage within the second personal portable device, anindication of a level of processor throughput of the second processor,an indication of a level of network throughput of the second personalportable device on the wireless network, and an indication of a userinteraction capability of the second personal portable device.
 37. Themethod of claim 30, wherein comparing the first requirements data to thefirst and second capabilities data comprises comparing requirements toexecute the first task routine to capabilities of the first and secondpersonal portable devices to execute routines, and wherein comparing thesecond requirements data to the first and second capabilities datacomprises comparing requirements to execute the second task routine tocapabilities of the first and second personal portable devices toexecute routines.
 38. The method of claim 30, wherein deriving the firstdistribution comprises determining which one of the first and secondpersonal portable devices stores a task data required to perform thetask.
 39. The method of claim 30, wherein the first distributionrequires that at least one of the first and second task routines becopied between the first and second personal portable devices, andwherein deriving the first distribution comprises determining whether atleast one of the first and second task routines is compatible with atleast one of the first and second processors.
 40. The method of claim30, further comprising: transmitting a first audio data between thefirst and second personal portable devices in performing the first taskportion; and audibly outputting at least a first portion of the firstaudio data in performing the second task portion.
 41. The method ofclaim 40, wherein: the first and second personal portable devicescooperate with a third personal portable device through the wirelessnetwork to perform the task; the wireless network is of a chaintopography wherein the third personal portable devices occupies anendpoint of the chain topography; and the method further comprises:retransmitting at least a second portion of the first audio to the thirdpersonal portable device through the wireless network in performing athird task portion of the task to enable the third personal portabledevice to audibly output the at least a second portion of the firstaudio; and retrieving a third requirements data indicating a capabilityrequired to perform the third task portion, and a third capabilitiesdata indicating a capability of the third personal portable device. 42.The method of claim 40, wherein: the first and second personal portabledevices cooperate with a third personal portable device through thewireless network to perform the task; the wireless network is of a chaintopography wherein the third personal portable devices occupies anendpoint of the chain topography; and the method further comprises:retransmitting the at least a first portion of the first audio to thethird personal portable device through the wireless network inperforming a third task portion of the task to enable the third personalportable device to audibly output the at least a first portion of thefirst audio; transmitting at least a portion of a second audio detectedby a microphone of the second personal portable device to the firstpersonal portable device through the wireless network in performing afourth task portion of the task; retrieving a third requirements dataindicating a capability required to perform the third task portion, afourth requirements data indicating a capability required to perform thefourth task portion, and a third capabilities data indicating acapability of the third personal portable device.